8-Misc: OECD conference on GE crops and food (5): Some voices on feeding the world

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Subject: 8-Misc: OECD conference on GE crops and food (5): Some voices on feeding the world

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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 14:40:01 +0100

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----------------------------- GENET-news -----------------------------
TITLE: Poor nations need genetically modified foods
SOURCE: Reuters, by David Luhnow
DATE: February 28, 2000
-------------------- archive: http://www.gene.ch/ --------------------
Poor nations need genetically modified foods
EDINBURGH - Poor countries need genetically modified (GM) crops to
feed growing populations, but the technology must not be controlled
by a few multinationals, a GM food conference was told Monday.
Experts from China, which has nearly a quarter of the world's
population but just seven percent of its arable land, and Mexico
played down fears about the safety of GM foods and said the new
technology could boost yields and make food healthier. "All
technologies have the ability to be misused. It is like using a knife
intended to cut meat to kill a human. Are we going to ban knives?"
Francisco Bolivar Zapata, head of the National Academy of Sciences in
Mexico, told a conference on GM foods. "We need technology,
especially biotechnology, for the future of mankind," Bolivar Zapata
told the conference, organized by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Growing consumer fears about so-called "Frankenstein foods,"
especially among Europeans, have led to calls by environmental groups
for a moratorium on field tests of GM crops. But experts said that
while European consumers can afford to worry about the potential
health risks of GM foods, the developing world cannot.
There are signs of a decline in the growth rate of farm yields round
the world, and genetic engineering will be vital in feeding the two
billion new humans expected on the planet by the year 2020, said
Gordon Conway, president of the Rockefeller Foundation. GM foods,
such as a rice enriched with Vitamin A developed by Swiss scientists,
could help some 800 million people in the developing world who suffer
from chronic malnutrition, while other so-called functional foods
could help 400 million women of childbearing age who suffer from iron
deficiency, Conway said.
A Chinese expert said recent government tests showed that GM crops
planted a decade ago remained stable and that rats eating GM foods
showed no signs of illness. "This is a very important technology for
improving production of food. Maybe in 10 years, we will no longer
think of this as a new technology but something common," said
Zhangliang Chen, vice-president of Beijing University.
TOO FEW FIRMS CONTROL GM TECHNOLOGY
Experts agreed that most biotechnology is controlled by six giant
multinational firms, including U.S.-based Monsanto, drugs giant
Novartis AG, and Anglo-Swedish drug firm Astra-Zeneca Plc. "It is an
atrocious situation that six corporations control this technology...
(They) are not attempting to create the kinds of crops that overcome
drought or overcome barriers to increase food production in the Third
World," Suman Sahai, president of the Gene Campaign in India, told
the conference.
Although the large biotechnology companies talk about feeding the
world, they are focusing on commercial crops in the developed world
and are forcing farmers in the developing world into a corner with
patents on GM seeds and crops, experts said. "They are not feeding
the world, they are never likely to do that.
The poor in the world are only going to be fed by public money. And
there is a major decline in public money for agriculture research,"
Conway said. Conway suggested partnerships between private firms and
governments that distribute the benefits of biotechnology to farmers
in the developing world.
--
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